The sport of surfing, though having participants of all ages, has a particularly large segment of teenage and young adult participants. Many of these teenage participants are not of age to drive a vehicle or other form of motorized transportation in which they may carry their surfboard when traveling to a beach or other surfing area. Further, many surfing area beaches are located remote from vehicle highways or parking lots and are only accessible via walkways or pathways. On the other hand, many beaches and surfing areas are extremely popular and, as a result, leave surfers faced with considerable traffic congestion when trying to travel to and from such areas. As such, many surfers find that bicycling to such areas is, in fact, a most preferred method of transportation. Thus, many individuals rely on bicycles as a preliminary mode of transportation and therefore must carry their surfboard with them when riding their bicycle to the beach. As can be appreciated, because of the relatively large size and configuration of a surfboard, carrying a surfboard while riding a bicycle is extremely difficult as well as potentially dangerous.
To overcome the hardship of riding a bicycle while simultaneously carrying a surfboard, a number of surfboard trailer devices have been developed and are currently known in the prior art. However, such known surfboard trailer devices possess certain inherent deficiencies which detract from their overall utility.
One such prior art surfboard trailer device comprises a generally triangular carrier mountable to the rear portion of the bicycle. The carrier includes first and second support members attached to the rear axle of a bicycle in a manner wherein the first support member extends generally horizontally rearward from the rear axle and the second support member extends generally vertically upward from the rear axle. The surfboard is affixed to the outer ends of the first and second support members in a generally angular orientation. In using this particular trailer device, however, the support members may not be easily removed from the rear axle of the bicycle. Thus, when it is desired to use the bicycle at a time when a surfboard is not being transported thereon, one must undergo a difficult and time consuming process to remove the support members from the rear axle.
A second prior art surfboard trailer device comprises an elongate support member having a first end attached to the seat support post of a bicycle and a second end terminating in a transversely extending axle having wheels placed on the opposed ends thereof. In this particular device, however, the wheels disposed on the opposed ends of the transversely extending axle create a wheel track which does not follow the track of the rear wheel of the bicycle itself. This particular occurrence makes control of the surfboard trailing the bicycle extremely difficult, particularly when traveling around curbs or corners.
As such, there is a need in the art to provide a bicycle trailer capable of supporting a surfboard secured thereon that does not interfere with the rider's vision or ability to ride the bicycle. Additionally, there is a need in the art to provide a bicycle trailer that is easy to assemble and further, provides means for carrying other personal objects such as towels, frisbees and the like.